


Day 012

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [12]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:33:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22231108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Relationships: Jansen/Wanda
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 3





	Day 012

The air in the Bone Pit was stuffy and stale. Walking those tunnels was always a fight against the feeling of suffocation but Jansen returned day after day because what else could he do? There were precious few jobs for fereldons, even four years after the blight had driven them to seek refuge in the Free Marches.

He heaved his pickaxe at the wall beginning the long rhythmic motions that were his daily life. He took up singing to ease the work. Today the song of Andraste’s mabari seemed fitting. He was feeling especially homesick today. As Jansen worked time ceased register with him, was he down there for one hour or several.

There was a tremendous crack as his pickaxe broke through the wall of the tunnel and opened up a completely new passage. Jansen felt a wave of cool air on his face and but this air was far from fresh. It carried the stench of decay. He tried to run but his feet were stuck in place, as though some invisible hand were holding him. From the tunnel came the clitter-clatter of spider feet and Jansen could only watch in terror as the monstrous creature, about the size of a horse, crawled towards him.

The monster grabbed onto him and began violently shaking him and spewed a clear liquid over him. He felt the spit soak into his clothes. He lashed out at the spider trying to his one of its eyes. Hes fist connected and he hears a high pitched yelp of pain.

“Jansen, please I need you to wake up!”

Jansen opened his eyes and screamed. He searched frantically around the dark room, but his eyes hadn’t adjusted. He still felt the wetness soaking through the sheets.

“What’s going on?” he asked. Fumbling for a candle.

“Jansen, please calm down. You’re at home. You’re safe.” Jansen reached out and felt Wanda’s hand. His wife gripped tightly pulling him in close for a moment. He felt her heart beating in her chest and laid a hand on her belly, feeling for their child’s movement.

The dreams usually came in waves, he would be fine for months and then he would wake up screaming every night for a week. Usually the dreams were about dragons, this was the first time he had seen a spider. No one at the Bone pit talked about the dreams but they all had them, else they spent all their coin drinking until they passed out so they wouldn’t. Not Jansen though. He had sworn off drink when Hawke had promoted him to foreman three years ago. Since then Jansen and his Wanda had been saving up money. One day they would buy a shop and he wouldn’t have to go back to the Bone Pit anymore. Maybe then the dreams would stop.

“Jansen, we need to go,” Wanda said.

“Go where?” Jensen asked. Wanda just let out a scream through gritted teeth. Jansen felt again the soaked sheets. And finally his brain connected the pieces.

“The babe?” he asked. Wanda nodded and let out another scream. “Right.” Jansen found himself suddenly awake and on his feet. He helped Wanda to stand and let her lean on him for support as they made their way past the beds of the others who shared the flophouse with them.

“You all right,” asked Porret, an enormous man with a bushy blond mustache who also worked in the mine.

“I need to get Wanda to the healer,” Jansen explained. Porret come to Wanda’s other side and the three of them helped her through the streets. Normally it wasn’t safe to wander the streets of Kirkwall at night but between the Qunari attack and the vigilantes that prowled at night, most of the gangs had been killed or scared off and no one had risen to take their place yet. It was only a matter of time, but for now Jansen was thankful.

With Porrett’s help, Jansen managed to get Wanda all the way to Darktown in good time. He hopped that the healer was in his clinic or Jansen didn’t know what he would do.


End file.
